It’s hard to believe that this stunning beauty once had such a rough patch in her life. Tan Wen Dee overcame a stumbling block in order to grow with such poise and grace to eventually become the Marketing Manager of HotelQuickly, a hotel-booking app that allows you to make last minute bookings at discounted rates.
Wen Dee shared with Vulcan Post that she has vivid memory of the day she received her SPM results where she was filled with anger, regret and a feeling of hopelessness. It took her a total of 9 months to gather the strength to move forward. University was the next step she took, with hopes of one day becoming successful in the future.
Her positive thinking and self-motivation became her own pillar of strength and it came as no surprise that success was exactly what was handed to her. Wen Dee was able to showcase this by not only passing with a streak of flying colours but also graduating with first class honours and becoming the business graduate of her year.
Working With A Leading Brand
Success came in abundance for Wen Dee upon graduation, for she founded her path of career by beginning with Zalora Malaysia as a Marketing Executive. It took no less than 5 months before she then propelled to the position of Head of Partnership and Offline Marketing for the company.
Part of how the Malaysian lass became so successful must surely be due to her firm knowledge on her own strengths, as well as playing her cards well. Wen Dee said, “My initial career choice was in the hospitality field. However, I always knew ‘communication’ was my inherent strength. With that, I chose marketing as my major and now I have the best of both worlds— a combination of hospitality and marketing.”
The blossoming beauty now holds the credential of being the first employee of HotelQuickly Malaysia, and finds her experience with the company to be an extremely rewarding one. Her role in marketing is akin to playing the role of a middle man, where she facilitates the processes involving all the stakeholders—namely sales, tech, customer service team, prospects, development and the C-level.
“Being the ‘man’ in the middle, I had to understand thoroughly how each team functions individually and as a whole,” she said.
With her job, Wen Dee spends 70% of her time dealing with external parties such as the media, potential partners and stakeholders from the various related industries in order to create a win-win-win situation for all parties concerned.
Luck Be On Her Side
However, she was rather fortunate when it came to finding her dream job. Wen Dee landed her first job with Zalora by getting to know about the brand through one of their creative adverts and eventually applying through Jobstreet.
Likewise, she also found her job with HotelQuickly through the aid of a social media platform and this just proves that the world is getting all the more connected these days, whereby jobs can even be applied for through Facebook.
Wen Dee shared this stroke of sweet serendipity with Vulcan Post, “While scrolling through the Facebook timeline, I came across HotelQuickly’s post on ‘We Are Hiring’. Without a doubt the name is catchy, so I researched about the company and submitted my CV. Hey! Being on Facebook is not a waste of time, I got my dream job!”
Indeed she managed to land a job which is the best of both worlds. Wen Dee said that working with HotelQuickly gives her the best balance between both work and leisure, because it breaks all the traditional sigma where one has to be sitting in front of the office 8-10 hours a day.
“I could be working from home, in the gym, could be sitting at the backseat of my Uber Black. I have total control over 24 hours every single day as long as I get the job done well,” she said.
Climbing A Ladder To The Top
Surely this all seems fine and dandy, but it takes a lot of strength to climb the ladder all the way to the top. Moreover, Wen Dee’s path did not come by without her fighting her own personal struggles—the first, being the fear of the unknown. She said, “It’s human nature for us to be afraid of what we do not know. For instance, I had sweaty palms when I had to lead my first partnership meeting with Malaysia’s #1 bank.”
The second struggle she faced was lack of resources. “Typically, startups and small businesses have a severe lack of resources and employees. I was put into a position where I had to fill in a variety of positions. I pride myself as a ‘working-ninja’ because I can be doing 5 things at the same time, while I have 10 ideas running through my mind,” she shared.
The third struggle Wen Dee faced was that of credibility. She noted that being the youngest in the crowd doesn’t help sometimes. This is especially true when she finds herself in a meeting room filled with ‘seniors’. Therefore, she had to work twice as hard to prove to them that she deserves to be there and that she can get the job done.
Believe, And You Will Succeed
What she found useful in overcoming these struggles is being true to what she wants in life. She does this by following her passion, as well as taking initiatives and going beyond what was expected of her.
“Find out what inspires you, if reading quotes on social media inspires you, keep reading. If rap songs by Kanye West and Wiz Khalifa inspires you, keep listening. Associate immense pleasure with achieving your goal, consider how you will celebrate when you succeed, this will help you to get out of your comfort zone and reach out to the unknown to achieve that goal. Identify what you are good at, combine that with what thrill you the most,” advised Wen Dee.
For what’s to come in the future, she speaks lovingly of it, stating that nobody is certain about what is in their future. We may have everything planned out for the next hour, month or even year but situations can change in the blink of an eye. What Wen Dee does know is that she is passionate about certain things in life, such as travelling and exploring the world to experience different cultures.
Her job with HotelQuickly is a stepping stone for that, as employees are able to work wherever and whenever they want – be it on Manukan Island in Kota Kinabalu or the cafè next to the Cathedral in Milan.
Vital People In Her Life
Although having such flexibility in her career, Wen Dee knows that she was fortunate to have great mentors in her life who served as guides when she had to navigate her forest of life. As such, she is grateful to a list of people who have been there for her, inclusive of Tomas Laboutka, the CEO and co-founder of HotelQuickly.
In her words she said, “Luck played a role. My mentor moulded me. I follow my passion, climbing up the career ladder is easier when you love what you do.” Wen Dee wishes to extend this passion of hers by one day owning a company, and continually making a difference in everyone’s daily life.
For now though, Wen Dee finds herself making the difference in the life of her team by aligning regional goals, organising internal campaigns and creating, as well as localising marketing content for HotelQuickly. While this is definitely no small feat at all, Wen Dee takes it all in, with each high heeled stride.
